Dennis Hauger ble nummer to i Formel 2-kvalifiseringen i Nederland, og kjørte inn til en femteplass i løpet. Les mer i denne pressemeldingen fra Red Bull Junior Team.
A wet F2 weekend in the Netherlands saw Jak Crawford take an excellent pole at Zandvoort that he converted to 3rd place just behind fellow Red Bull Junior Zane Maloney on a damp and tricky track in Sunday’s incident-filled Feature Race.
Isack Hadjar came out on top in a halted Sprint Race on Saturday. It was Red-flagged following a three-way collision on the opening lap and was shortly resumed under Safety Car, but torrential rain stopped the proceedings. No points were awarded as two racing laps were not completed without a Safety Car intervention
Maloney with another excellent result
“A great weekend finished in Zandvoort,” enthused the 19-year-old Barbadian who chased hard but couldn’t quite challenge for the win. “Not much running throughout the weekend, and crazy weather made it a difficult one. Really happy with P2. The timing of the Safety Car didn’t really help us.
«We stopped and I had to push really hard out of the pits and of course, Clem (Novalak) was able to bring his in during the Safety Car. In F2 these things really affect the life of the tire.»
“So I was in trouble with mine towards the end of the race but happy to get another feature race podium. Can’t wait for Monza.”
Crawford’s great weekend at the front
“It was really an amazing weekend for us, for me and the team,” stated the 18-year-old American. Really fast, I would say overall, Qualifying and the races, we had the quickest car, I was driving really well.”
«It all sort of came together, me getting my first pole, It was done on the first run. Sure there was more to improve, more to come on the 2nd run. It would still have been really close.»
“I was over the moon to get my first pole. That’s how you put yourself in the position to score really good points over the weekend. The car was great and I felt like I was driving decent as well.”
“In the Sprint Race, I didn’t get very fast, had an incident on the first lap. Visibility was nothing, I was punted off the track and I was just happy that everyone was OK. Those conditions are unacceptable to race in. It was a bit pointless, there were no points for that race and I DNF’d anyway.”
“The Feature Race, another race in mixed conditions. We made the right tyre choice at the beginning. I knew it was going to be really tough, I hung on well in the first couple of laps. We were doing a really good job, had a Safety Car, stayed ahead.”
“We made our pit stop, I had a really good out lap, managed to keep Maloney behind. In the next laps, I was overtaking cars on out laps and the pace was really good. We were on for the race win.”
“I was really confident with the tyre wear we had as well. Then there was a Safety car just as some guys were pitting and I got jumped under the Safety Car. It screwed us completely.”
“I only fell to P2 but in that moment I made a small mistake on the restart and dropped a position to Zane. After that, it was just a train, hard to follow, hard to overtake.”
“It’s a really good result, good points, we’ve never been up there in a Feature Race but it is still bittersweet to lose it like that we were the dominant car to win.”
Dennis Hauger looking for a win but denied by others
“Qualifying was a good step for us,” stated the 20-year-old Norwegian. “Messy with all the Red Flags but we were always up there on lap times so were feeling good and pleased with progress in Qualifying performance.”
“The rain stopped our race on Saturday which was the right decision. It was no visibility and couldn’t even see the big crash that was just in front of me.”
“Today I was very eager for that win.”
“We ended up being pushed out and lost a position due to another driver losing control of his own car and just getting desperate. Then the Safety Car came out at the perfect time for the guys that hadn’t pitted yet so we lost even more with that.”
“So we had the pace but it just didn’t go our way on anything, otherwise we would have… but unfortunately…”
“But that is how it is so we will keep working for Monza. I’m already in the simulator tomorrow!”
Isack Hadjar with exceptional pace at times
“Qualifying was a bit disappointing because the first run was good,” explained the 18-year-old Frenchman. “Especially the first push lap. I was a tenth clear on P2 and felt that the car was really amazing but I have to say I was pushing quite hard on that lap and on the second lap I ran out of tyres a bit on the last sector and the lap was not perfect and I was a tenth off.”
“Still I was in a good position to fight for pole, especially with the car we had. My teammate was first at that time. So I was very confident heading into the second run but in the end it never happened, there were 3 Red Flags, it was very frustrating and I fell back to P9, hard to swallow.”
“Then, starting 2nd for the Sprint Race, the race was delayed quite a lot. It allowed the clouds to come and we had messy weather. We eventually got to race, I managed to keep the lead but the conditions were too dangerous and we couldn’t complete enough laps to score points so again that was really frustrating, no points.”
“Today was OK, I had a good start, I kept it clean, gained a few places. The pace on the option was really really good. I hoped that I could stay on track a bit longer, I was the fastest car on track at this point.”
“But I think the team did well to pit me because we are not allowed to pit under the Safety Car this weekend. I pitted just before the Safety Car came out so we got lucky with that but the stop was really bad.”
“I lost a few seconds there and that prevented me from over-cutting most of the cars ahead. I fell back to P8.”
“The pace was good for the first few laps on the medium but then it was really strange mid-race, the performance was not there. I had some graining on the front left. Then at the end, I was one of the fastest cars on track. I was catching a lot on Victor (Martins) and Dennis (Hauger) ahead. So that was positive but we need to understand why it was such an up-and-down race.”
Enzo Fittipaldi with an excellent recovery
“It was a difficult start to the weekend,” explained the 22-year-old Brazilian. “I basically wasn’t able to get any lap in, in Qualifying. I got traffic in my first push and after that, we had Red Flags. We had gone into Qualifying with a strategy to run 3 sets and it ended up not working out and we qualified 19th.”
”In today’s race, we started 19th and had a really good recovery race, went from 19th to 7th.
“Our pace was very good and I am very happy with the points today, it is obviously super hard to overtake in Zandvoort.¨
“I’m looking forward to the next race weekend in Monza, I am sure we are going to Qualify much higher up in the order and looking forward to a great week in Italy.”
Ayumu Iwasa picked the wrong time for the move
“It was a really difficult weekend again,” admitted the 21-year-old Japanese. “In Qualifying we just didn’t perform well enough so we were P12. That was quite bad.”
“It caused quite a lot of problems for the two races. Especially for today’s Feature Race.”
“Today’s Race should have been a good situation for me but I made it a bad situation myself because of my mistake at the start. It was really the wrong way to push to the limit, it was not a good moment to push.”
“So this is down to my performance. At least we have some direction to improve in now, ready for the next event so we will try to come back to the top in Monza.”